Marc40a

ThermionicScott 

I'm still using battery taillights, but it seems to me that the truly hot setup would include dyno taillights for a completely set-and-forget system. The thought of running wiring from the front to the back always gives me pause, though.

Maybe I'll try one of those induction lights like @rhm. The price is right!

znomit

I have one of these on my seatstay to complement my B&M Secula dyno light. The flash is bright enough for daytime visibility, you can set the steady brightness dim enough to be group friendly.
https://cygolite.com/product/hotshot-pro-200-usb/

rhm

Eh, well, as to that.... the one I was using stopped working about 50 miles into a ride in January. It didn't appear damaged... so I don't know what's up with that.

ThermionicScott 

Aw crap, I should have checked in with you before spending that $10!

rhm

Hey, well, maybe you will get what you paid for! :fingerscrossed:

ThermionicScott 

I'll manage my expectations, maybe start a thread on the Electronics subforum. Sure seems like a cool idea for a light!

unterhausen

they keep updating that design, which is nice. How long would you say it lasts? I think the most recent models I have are the hotshot 50. Two of my hotshots are out in the nearby woods, including a hotshot 80. I'm a slow learner on mounting techniques.

Tourist in MSN

B&M IQ-XS

Almost all the snow and ice has melted here, I have taken the studded tires off, a few days ago I finally got around to installing the B&M IQ-XS (or XS for short) that I bought a few months ago.
https://www.bumm.de/en/products/dyna...di-silber.html

I like it. The light pattern is not quite as good as the Luxos U, the XS has some brighter areas and dimmer areas in the field of coverage, but overall I think it is a very nice light pattern for riding on pavement. I bought it shipped from Germany, I was rather happy with the price too.

I had mentioned the XS in a thread, perhaps on a different sub-forum, someone asked why I bought that instead of the X. Since I was happy with the 70 lux out of the Luxos U, I felt that the rated 70 lux of the XS was good enough and the price was much better for the XS than the X.

I usually prefer battery powered taillights, but I picked up a cheap used dyno powered taillight at a swap meet a couple months ago. I did not plan on putting a dyno powered taillight on this bike but I put my new (used) taillight on the same bike as the XS. Not sure yet if it will stay there the taillight wiring job that I did looks rather temporary.

ADDENDUM ADDED NEXT DAY:

Photo of the XS on my bike. Fork crown was already busy with the canti brake cable hanger, so I mounted the light on the canti brake post. I used the extra long light mount and bent it up a bit to get it high enough above the wheel to avoid too much wheel shadow. I was concerned that my brake bolt was not long enough to add the light to the canti post with the original bolt, so I used a short threaded rod and some nuts instead. The wiring is a bit busy because I did not want to cut any wiring shorter than I needed it to be at this time and I also have a Sinewave Revolution wired in parallel with the headlamp which complicates the wiring. The light is small enough that I have plenty of clearance for my handlebar bag above the light.

znomit

The problem with it is you can't tell exactly how long it will last because you change the flash pattern frequency to extend battery life, but it's hard to guess what the runtime will be.

samkl 

Has anyone used Kasai dynamo hubs? My shop can get them cheaper than the Shutter Precision hubs, and I wonder if there's much of a difference--or any at all. I wonder if they're just rebadged SPs.

unterhausen

that's an interesting hub. It does look like an SP

Tourist in MSN

Never heard of them. Do they have the same warranty?

samkl 

Dunno. They’re distributed by Merry Sales, as is SP. Which seems odd if they’re the same hub.

unterhausen

SP is happy to built rebranded hubs for other companies

rhm

Looking at the photos I've found online, the Kasai hubs appear to have a different plug for attaching the wires. I'm not sure how relevant that is, but it suggests to me they're different hubs.

joewein

SP PD-8 and Kasai D6 look virtually identical to me:



Both use the standard Shimano connector. The quoted weight is 420g / 410g, almost the same.

One source says:

Tourist in MSN

Made by the same manufacturer that used to make Shutter Precision hubs

Does that mean that Shutter Precision no longer makes SP hubs?

I have two SP hubs, both PV-8, one from 2013 and one from 2017. I bought the 2013 hub on line shipped from Taiwan because I could not find a dealer in USA that sold them so I might have one of the first ones made, but by 2017 everybody seemed to sell them. There is a slight difference in the shape, the center band where the printing is on my older one that band is much more rounded in shape. Otherwise the old and newer ones look identical.

joewein

I am pretty sure Shutter Precision still make SP dynamo hubs. Perhaps this shop thinks Shutter Precision used to outsource production but now they make them in house or something like that, but that was also the first time I had ever heard anything like that.

unterhausen

I have seen rumors about SP folding, but I'm pretty sure they aren't true.

joewein

I have googled for Kasai and can't seem to find any related business of that name. Perhaps it's just a Japanese-sounding brand that Merry Sales or Soma came up with for an OEM version of SP (who are based in Taiwan). I imagine they can get more margin on an OEM version but by using a different brand name they're not directly undercutting SP retail pricing. This is pure speculation on my side, of course

rhm

The SP website doesn't give any hint that they've gone under, or at least none that I can find.

SP Store

unterhausen

I'm sure they are still there, I hope I didn't help spread any rumors. Maybe a dealer stopped carrying them? At one point you could only go direct or through a single ebay vendor, but now they have many people selling their hubs. I probably am only buying SON hubs in the future, but when I was buying SP's, I wished that I could buy them through my LBS. But they don't have a Merry Sales account.